West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-03-25

dictionary with improvement and
pleasure"
Turning now to almost modern
times, we find that Noah Webster
practically collated his immeasura-
bly, superior work in much the same
way. He was less self-sufficient,
and drew generously from the best
printed authorities obtainable, but
he, too, practically made his diction-
ary himself. His work no longer
stands uncorrected, however. After
he died it will be remembered Prof.
Goodrich, of New Haven, revised it
with the aid of q considerable syn
dicate of writer's. Yet by no less
authority than the Publishers
Weekly, of January 18th, it is re-
corded that when the unabridged
edition of Webster's Dictionary first
appeared the great scholar, Caleb
Gushing, wrote criticism on the
stupendous work, saying that, for its
size. it had as few errors as could
be expected. This puzzled the edi-
tors, who asked an explanation of
Nc. Cushing on the subject of those
errors. In reply, Mr.. Cushing
marked five thousand mistakes in
the volume which had been present
ed to him and sent it back" This
great and noble dictionary went to
press without the word "una-
bridged," which forms its popular
title being defined within its pages.
How natural an omission-yet it
was a mistake, and mistakes are not
condonable in works of reference
any more than in military matters.
The makers of
THE CENTURY DICTIONARY
that is to be, proposed to make a
dictionary in the modern way, and
they have to cut out new paths for
themselves in order to do ii. They
propose copying nothing from any
authority without verifying it, to
accept nothing in the old authorities
that new and living ones will not
vouch for, in fact, to begin at the
bottom as if no dictionary had ever
been made and q perfect one was to
be gotten out. The most curious
thing about the work is that they
did not intend to do this at the cut
set, but have been led into it step by
step. They owe the gigantic work
they have undertaken to purchase
efthe plates of an English dictionary
called the Imperial-the new revision
of DR.. John Ogilvie's master work.
In buying it they first proposed to
Americanize it by striking out the
purely Englishism in spelling, for in
stance. and by adding words or def
milton in American usage. They
saw then that they had better cut
The plates and insert new matter to
considerable extent Finally, they
decided to throw the whole work
overheard and begin anew. Mr..
Roswell Smith, president of the com
pany, says that if they had known
what they were undertaking they
would have been appalled, at the ex-
pcnse and time required and might
not have gone into it The Imperial
dictionary is in four octave volumes.
The Century may comprise ten.
They went so far that it soon be-
came too late to halt, and now for
nearly six years the work has been
on the way with the present belief
that it may be completed in two
years. The Imperial dictionary was
taken as basis, as it was the most
elaborate and complete work extant.
A great force of women was employ
ed to cut up proofs of all the pages
of the. Imperial and reassort all the
headings under kindred classified
tions-bringing all natural history
words together, all the terms in med
cine, in art, in the mechanical
branches, in archaeology, all Ameri
canisms and, in fact, each sort of
words together under their own
heads. For each classification liv
ing authority was then sought, the
highest one if possible, to take
charge ofthe branch Of the work that
he was master Of For example, Aus
TIN Abbott is the expert by whom all
definitions of law terms are finally
supervised. The very world ofknowl-
edge has thus been enlisted in the
gigantic work, and, over all the ex-
perts, purely literary men have been
engaged to revise the English of the
definitions and monographs each eX
pert furnishes, Higher still, above
all these, is
PROF. WHITNEY, OF YALE,
the greatest authority in linguistics
in this country, who is the editor-in-
chief of the work. But that is not all
that is needed to make the new die
tionary which is to take the place OF
the once formidable work Samuel
Johnson produced in his bedroom in
Holborn. A little host of eminent
literary men is also hard at work
reading standard works simply to
find words not defined in any die
tionary. You would scarcely credit
it, but in the Encyclopedia Britanmi
ca alone there have been found ten
thousand words not included in the
best English dictionaries. Father